e carriage of Madame ----, and
that my friend gained his cause." To this anecdote I can only say, I
tell it exactly as I heard it, and that M. de ---- is a deputy, and one
of the honestest and simplest-minded men of my acquaintance. It is but
proper to add, that the judge in question has a bad name, and is little
esteemed by the bar; but the above-mentioned fact would go to show that
too much of the old system remains.

In Germany justice bears a better name, though the absence of juries
generally must subject the suitor to the assaults of personal influence.
Farther south, report speaks still less favourably of the manner in
which the laws are interpreted; and, indeed, it would seem to be an
inevitable consequence of despotism that justice should be abused. One
hears occasionally of some signal act of moderation and equity on the
part of monarchies, but the merits of systems are to be proved, not by
these brilliant _coups de justice_, but by the steady, quiet and regular
working of the machine, on which men know how to calculate, in which
they have faith, and which as seldom deceives them as comports with
human fallibility, rather than by _scenes_ in which the blind goddess is
made to play a part in a _melodrama_.

On the whole, it is fair to presume that, while public opinion, and that
intelligence which acts virtually as a bill of rights, even in the most
despotic governments of Europe, not even excepting Turkey, perhaps, have
produced a beneficial influence on the courts, the secrecy of their
proceedings, the irresponsible nature of their trusts (responsible to
power, and irresponsible to the nation), and the absence of publicity,
produce precisely the effects that a common-sense view of the facts
would lead one who understands human nature to expect.

I am no great admirer of the compromising verdicts of juries, in civil
suits that admit of a question as to amounts. They are an admirable
invention to settle questions of guilty or not guilty, but an
enlightened court would, nine times in ten, do more justice in the cases
just named. Would it not be an improvement to alter the present powers
of juries, by letting them simply find for or against the suitor,
leaving the damages to be assessed by regular officers, that might
resemble masters in chancery? At all events, juries, or some active
substitute, cannot be safely dispensed with until a people have made
great progress in the science of publicity, and in a knowle